Anna Bell Edgerton, age 80, was laid to rest in
Asheville, NC's historic Riverside Cemetery this Saturday in the company of
more than 200 friends and supporters, but not until she and her family received
a major snub from the management of Hill St. Baptist Church.Mrs. Edgerton, mother of seven, passed away Jan. 16 after a long illness.
Numbered among Mrs. Edgerton’s children are Southern Heritage activists H.K. Edgerton and Terry Lee Edgerton. H.K., a former president of the Asheville Chapter of the NAACP, has spent his time for the past several years working for racial reconciliation and preservation of Southern heritage and culture.
To achieve these objectives, he proudly proclaims the joint heritage of the sons and daughters of former slaves, and with white southerners who are descended from former slave owners and soldiers in the War Between the States. He does this most visibly by wearing the traditional uniform of a Confederate soldier and carrying the southern battle flag with him on marches throughout the South and East.
Mrs. Edgerton’s life was to have been celebrated at a Confederate funeral at Hill St. Baptist and a procession to nearby Riverside Cemetery. The presence of Confederate re-enactors in full uniform, carrying their flags and wearing the uniforms of the politically incorrect Confederacy, however, was too much for the Hill St. church management.
Late Saturday morning, just thirty minutes before Mrs. Edgerton’s body was to be moved to the church, Hart Funeral Home received a call from the church stating that the funeral could not be held there. Darryl Hart then opened the funeral home chapel to the Edgerton family and to all their friends, black and white.
“I was very upset about that,” H.K. told the Tribune. “No one knew there was a problem until we received that call. We had already agreed that the Confederate flags would be furled in the church and in the parking lot. We had no advance warning, just a cancellation.”
At the funeral, Southern rights activist attorney Kirk Lyons spoke on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Lyons said Mrs. Edgerton and the family had received many, many e-mail messages of love and support through the Sons of Confederate Veterans and through the Southern Legal Resource Center in Black Mountain, where H.K. is a director and corporate officer.
Mrs. Edgerton’s two granddaughters, Shykita Edgerton, joined with Danielle White, and Makayla Washington, a great-granddaughter sang “Because He Lives,” a traditional hymn by Gloria and William J. Gaither. Eddie Edgerton played the piano in accompaniment. Terry Lee, his son O’Terry, and David Johnson played a tribute on traditional African drums followed by a solo “I Won’t Complain” by Randy Weston.
The eulogy was given by Rev. Brown of St. Luke’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
Following the service, guests were invited to Hill St. School for a processional to graveside services at Riverside Cemetery. Mrs. Edgerton’s
coffin was carried on a horse-drawn wagon with her son, H.K. following along carrying the Southern Cross of St. Andrew flag.
Terry Lee said the graveside service “was like a dream come true. It was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream with black and white mixed together. It was an awakening of knowledge, like the opening of a Christmas present.
“The cemetery was packed. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the ladies of the Order of the Confederate Rose, and the ladies in mourning from the
Society of the Black Rose, mixed in with my Mom’s friends and relatives. It was a dream. She wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Born March 124, 1924 in Anderson, SC, Mrs. Edgerton was the youngest of three children and lived in Asheville for more than 60 years. She was the mother of seven, grandmother of 15 and great-grandmother of six. She was a member of St. Luke AME Zion Church.
“It’s a shame that Hill St. Baptist prevented our having this service there,” H.K. said. “Had this service been held there, maybe they could have
seen the love that should exist between the races. Hill St. had the chance to be on the center stage, but they chose the low road instead.”
H.K. was highly complimentary of funeral director Darryl Hart. “Darryl Hart had the courage to open his facility at the last minute to everyone, and was so dignified. Also, the Sons of Confederate Veterans were so gracious and kind. My Mom had a Confederate honor guard who stood watch over her all the time she was at the funeral home. And be sure to mention our special friend who stood with us, Mr. Tom Muncie.”
“It was a special day. I was proud accompany my Mom to the cemetery, carrying the flag. It is our flag, the flag of our Southern heritage.”